Good morning: In today's edition of The Industry, we look at:
Babygirl’s Urchin, Netflix’s Flood, and Slime.
Let’s go!
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We’re doing a workshop on How to Start a Production Company with an A-list Actor. With the president of Oscar-winner Sam Rockwell’s production company, Mark Berger.
Click here for more details: https://theindustry.co/p/workshop-how-to-start-a-production
Frank Dillane won Best Actor at Cannes in Un Certain Regard for his work in Urchin, Harris Dickinson’s directorial debut.
I sat down with Dillane to discuss his performance, which I found had a wonderful contrast of animalistic desperation and childlike exuberance.
Dillane shared his process of playing Mike, a homeless man living on the streets of London:
“A lot of Mike’s world was one of physical suffering, as well as mental kind of exhaustion… so in terms of preparing for it, I sort of honed in on the character searching for grace and salvation and peace.”
This contrast between his need to survive and his hunger to belong is most spectacularly realized in one scene where a new friend offers him Ketamine, after he’s been sober for 8 months.
Dillane, who grew more animated with each response, shared:
“There are people who can take drugs recreationally and have a good time and speak eloquently, and I think Mike, in that moment, is like, ‘well, maybe I can be one of these people also.’”
He continued:
“And I think that that’s the tragedy. Some of us can’t necessarily have things in moderation… I think we are all addicts to at least our own thoughts.”
In Urchin, Dillane’s Mike isn’t searching for redemption so much as relief. In that way, the film finds a strange grace: the look of someone who knows he has no place to call home, but keeps searching anyway.
For More:
Full interview with Frank Dillane: https://theindustry.co/p/how-frank-dillane-won-best-actor
THE INDUSTRY TLDR
Warner Bros. Discovery reports Q3 2025 net loss of $148M.
Lionsgate Q3 2025 revenue dips 21%.
Netflix halts Zach Cregger’s The Flood.
Comcast explores potential WBD bid and ITV acquisition via Sky.
Apple TV orders La Décision, a French thriller starring Diane Kruger.
Zach Lipovsky & Adam B. Stein in talks to direct Long Lost for Universal/Amblin.
Sony TV inks overall deal with Bob’s Burgers producer Kelvin Yu.
HBO Max is developing American Blue and How to Survive Without Me.
Paramount greenlights Dalliance starring Hugo Weaving.
CBS’s CIA spinoff loses showrunner Warren Leight.
Priyanka Chopra Jonas to star in S.S. Rajamouli’s (RRR) next epic.
Sarah Paulson in talks for Ryan Murphy’s Monster.
Peter Sarsgaard joins Road House 2.
AFM new projects: No Man’s Land (Noomi Rapace), Next Life (Emilia Clarke), Empire City (Gerard Butler). Breakdown here.
Elijah Bynum (dir: Magazine Dreams) returns with My Darling California, starring
Jessica Chastain, Josh Brolin, Chris Pine, & Mikey Madison.
LaKeith Stanfield joins Jeron Braxton’s anime-inspired Slime.
Ridley Scott’s Scott Free hires Kerry Kohansky-Roberts as EVP Film.
ITV Q3 2025 Results: $2.4B total revenue (↑4%).
THE INDUSTRY NEWS
Warner Bros. Discovery Q3 2025 results. And the change from last year:
$148M net loss Q3
↓ from $135M net gain
$2.47bn EBITDA
↑ 2%
$3.3bn studio income
↑24%
$695M profit (↑126%)
↑74% theatrical revenue
128M subs (58M domestic)
↑2.3M since last quarter (only .2M are domestic)
$345M profit streaming (vs. Disney’s $346M)
↑19%
$3.9bn linear division revenue
↓ 22% overall
↓ 20% profit ($1.7bn)
Bottom line is that linear is shrinking, and WBD has already decided to spin off its cable channels. Before that happens, they might be bought by Paramount, Comcast, or Netflix.
Streaming and the studio segments are doing extremely well, as the investment in originals paid off.
They’re also following Netflix’s playbook of expanding internationally, gaining most of their subs internationally. So expect a price hike sometime soon after they double down on the password crackdown.
Lionsgate Q3 earnings, as compared to last year:
$475 M revenue
↓ 21%
$113.5M net loss
↑ 30.5%
$30.5M studio profit
↑ from 1.2M last year
$198.7M TV revenue
↓ 52.3%
CEO Jon Feltheimer said:
“During the quarter, we readied a film slate primed to deliver strong growth over the next 18 months, refilled our television pipeline with key series renewals and breakout new shows, and reported $1 billion in trailing 12-month library revenue.”
Lionsgate is about to flip the script from seven straight box office disasters (Borderlands, The Crow, etc.) to the upcoming Michael Jackson biopic Michael (official trailer), which will launch April 24th, 2026.
Tidbits:
Zach Cregger (Weapons)’s sci-fi film The Flood has hit a wall at Netflix, with the director taking a step back due to Netflix’s lack of theatrical commitment. Despite Netflix Films chairman Dan Lin personally pitching the filmmaker in Prague with a promise of theatrical release, co-CEO Ted Sarandos ultimately rejected the idea, prompting Cregger to halt progress. Cregger, whose Weapons grossed $267M for New Line this summer, insists his next project must premiere theatrically. The teams are still negotiating, but it takes a lot to get Netflix to entertain bringing something to theatres (cough… Kpop Demon Hunters).
Comcast makes its first move to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. According to a report, they’ve hired the investment bank. The goal? To take a deeper dive into the value of Warner Bros. Discovery’s assets and financial data. Netflix did the same thing last week. No formal bid has been made, unlike Paramount’s David Ellison. Comcast is also looking into purchasing ITV Broadcast (through its subsidiary Sky).
Apple TV’s La Décision, a French thriller series, is set to be led by Diane Kruger (Inglourious Basterds) and Raphaël Personnaz (The French Minister). The show follows a “race-against-the-clock” mystery, as Personnaz’s president searches for his missing, illegitimate daughter, a quest that quickly escalates into a full-blown state affair. This isn’t the first French series Apple has taken on, historical drama Carême and Vincent Cassel-starring Liaison.
Following the success of Final Destination: Bloodlines, Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein are in talks to direct Long Lost for Universal and Amblin. Based on Colin Bannon’s short story (which he also adapted), the film is described as What Lies Beneath meets Rosemary’s Baby. It follows a woman whose husband’s long-lost wife reappears. The directing duo has a mastery of suspense and tension, and their Rube Goldberg setup in Bloodlines also has some great character depth.
Sony Pictures Television has signed off on a multi-year overall deal with Bob’s Burgers’ producer Kelvin Yu. Under the partnership, Yu will develop scripted drama, comedy, and animated series exclusively for SPT. Beyond his eight years with the hit FX series, Yu is also known for creating the high-speed fantasy show American Born Chinese (2023) for Disney+.
The Emmy-winning The Pitt is changing how HBO Max operates. After the success of the medical drama, the major streamer is developing a new model that includes 15+ episodes per season with a yearly release. The first projects involved are the cop show American Blue from Supernatural showrunner Jeremy Carver and Greg Berlanti’s How to Survive Without Me (working title). Both series come from Warner Bros. Television, with production expected to begin shortly.
Mini Tidbits:
During upfronts, Paramount announced Dalliance, a romance drama series starring Hugo Weaving (The Matrix) and Heather Mitchell (Love Me). The Sydney-set series follows Billy (Weaving), a married ex-cameraman whose affair with Dani (Mitchell) ends abruptly when he dies, triggering ripple effects among his friends.
Roku has named Chris Handman as General Counsel. Handman joins the streaming company with over two decades of legal experience in the technology space, most recently at management software vendor Rippling.
CBS’s FBI spinoff, CIA, sees showrunner Warren Leight (Law & Order: SVU) exit, production is currently paused, but Mike Weiss (FBI) is expected to take over, so its midseason debut stays on track.
Herb Nanas, influential agent turned-producer behind First Blood, Rocky III, Lost in America, and 2 Days in the Valley, died November 3 at 84. He discovered greats like Sylvester Stallone, managed Albert Brooks, and represented Roseanne Barr, Michael Chiklis, and others across film, TV, and music.
Renewals:
Hulu’s Reasonable Doubt (for S4)
Trailers:
Prime’s Oh. What Fun.
Cast: Michelle Pfeiffer, Felicity Jones, Chloë Grace Moretz, Denis Leary, Dominic Sessa
Dir: Michael Showalter
Release: Dec 3
Disney+’s Percy Jackson And The Olympians (S2)
Release: Dec 10
Mubi’s La Grazia
Dir: Paolo Sorrentino
Release: Dec 5
Sky’s Gomorrah - The Origins
Release: Early 2026
Janus Films’ Resurrection
Dir: Bi Gan (A Long Day’s Journey into Night)
Cinematic poetry
Release: Dec 12
Searchlight Pictures’ The Testament of Ann Lee
Release: Dec 25
Netflix’s Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 (animated)
Release: 2026
BBC’s The Night Manager (S2)
Cast: Tom Hiddleston
Release dates:
Warner Bros.’ Gremlins 3
Dir: Chris Columbus
EP: Spielberg
Release: Nov 19, 2027
Cohen Media Group’s Trifole
Release: Nov 14
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Premiere: Dec 1 in LA
THE ACTOR SPOTLIGHT
Priyanka Chopra Jonas is stepping into what could be the next global game-changer: she’s set to star in S.S. Rajamouli’s highly anticipated new film, joining the Telugu-cinema powerhouse behind the Oscar-winning RRR.
For Chopra Jonas, who has effortlessly straddled Bollywood blockbusters (Barfi!), Hollywood hits (Quantico), and award-chasing dramas (The Sky is Pink), this is another bold leap. To collaborate with Rajamouli, who is known for grand spectacle and international ambition, signals a turning point. It means she’s not just revisiting Indian cinema, she’s aiming for global resonance with scale and story.
There have not been any other plot announcements, and the untitled film is currently in its earliest stages of production.
Tidbits
The duo is back with Sarah Paulson in talks to star in Ryan Murphy’s Monster as serial killer Aileen Wuornos. While not yet made official, the American Horror Story alum is slated to appear in the upcoming fourth season of Murphy and Netflix’s horror anthology series. While you’d expect Paulson to be the star, the upcoming fourth season is centered on Lizzie Borden, so we’ll have to wait and see how much screen time Wuornos gets. Production has just begun in LA.
Mini Tidbits:
The Oscar-nominated Pauline Collins known for her titular role in Shirley Valentine (1989, trailer) has passed away. Her acclaimed performance in the romantic dramedy showcased Collins’ quick comedic timing and aching vulnerability as a woman learning to love herself again.
Peter Sarsgaard (September 5) and Rob Delaney (Dying for Sex) have joined Amazon MGM Studios’ Road House 2, directed by Ilya Naishuller (Hardcore Henry). Filming across the U.K., Malta, and Georgia, the sequel will expand on Amazon’s 2024 hit reboot that drew 80 million viewers with Jake Gyllenhaal reprising his leading role.
Apple Original Films’ untitled Stephen Chbosky (Perks of Being a Wallflower) dramedy starring Mark Wahlberg adds:
Wood Harris (One Battle After Another)
Mark Linn-Baker (Ghosts)
Yakov Smirnoff (Night Court)
Didi Conn (Best Medicine)
The story follows a father and his autistic son as they search for a favorite basketball team.
INDIE FILMMAKER SPOTLIGHT
From Magazine Dreams to My Darling California. Director Elijah Bynum, who made a magnificent and violent film, Magazine Dreams, which was pulled due to Jonathan Majors’ involvement, is back swinging with a new film, My Darling California.
The lineup is stunning:
Cast: Jessica Chastain, Josh Brolin, Chris Pine, Mikey Madison, Don Cheadle & Charles Melton
Prod Co: Anton (Greenland) and 2AM (Materialists)
Sales Reps: Anton and CAA
Synopsis:
A single crime in LA weaves together the lives of a TV host, his restless wife, a country music idol, two small-time crooks and an ex-con, all of whom are chasing the promise of a better life.
Sounds like a bit of Magnolia with a punch. Selling at AFM.
David Mackenzie (dir: Hell or High Water)’s Fuze, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Bullet Train), Theo James has been acquired by…
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